RIO DE JANEIRO vans old skool verdes baratas , June 30 (Xinhua) -- James Rodriguez was just six years old when word of his prodigious left foot began to spread around Arkaparaiso, a working class suburb in the Colombian city of Ibague.
His aunt, Patricia Rubia, tells the story about the day when James kicked the ball over a fence and through a grumpy neighbor's window.
The man stormed out of his home and punctured the ball with a kitchen knife before tossing it back at the youngster's feet.
James was inconsolable.
He had been cruelly deprived of his favorite toy and, although oblivious to it then vans old skool verdes , a tool that would allow him to hone the skills that have catapulted him into football's elite tier.
More than 16 years on, James David Rodriguez Rubio is arguably the most talked about footballer on the planet.
His performances at the World Cup have prompted Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez to compare him with Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona.
The 22-year-old has scored a tournament-high five goals and been the chief protagonist in Colombia's passage to the quarterfinals for the first time.
But it isn't just his numbers that have commanded attention. It is his balance, vision, ability with both feet and nerveless finishing that have led many to predict he could become Colombia's greatest ever player.
That mantle, it is unanimously agreed vans old skool granate mujer , currently belongs to Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama, who led Los Cafeteros to three successive World Cup finals appearances in the 1990s.
But even Valderrama says James could supplant him.
"James has the potential to be the greatest Colombian player to have ever lived, and perhaps as one of the greatest to have ever played the game," Valderrama said last week.
"He's consistent, incredibly talented vans old skool granate , and he's got more passion than any other player I've seen in all my years of playing and coaching professional football."
The son of a journeyman footballer and working mother, James was born in the city of Cucuta, on Colombia's border with Venezuela.
The family relocated to Ibague, about 150km west of the capital Bogota, when he was just six months old after James' father Wilson signed with local club Deportes Tolima.
Wilson battled drinking problems and separated from Pilar when James was three. Shortly after vans old skool azules baratas , Pilar met Juan Carlos Restrepo, who would become James' stepfather and a major influence on the youngster's career.
It was Juan Carlos who took James to his first club, Cooperamos Tolima, when he was seven.